Five US carriers, nearly identical devices, millions and millions of pre-orders, virtually simultaneous launch - and that's just the US. The Galaxy SIII might be hideous, Samsung is still doing something right here. No surprise, then, that Apple has, once again, decided to compete in the court room instead of on the shelves: they're asking for a US import ban on the SIII [FOSS Patents link].

Just to make it clear, in I have nothing against rich people and I don't feel particularly sorry for poor ones. In normal circumstances, at least.

What I'm against is strong governments of any kind, because they always end up serving themselves, not the people. A tyranny or communism by definition have a strong government (otherwise they wouldn't be able to force people to stay), but democracy may end up with one too. Just spoil people with printed/borrowed money and they will unanimously vote for more government.

What comes next is an explosion of various laws and regulations (IP laws, import restriction, employment and immigration restriction, safety regulations, surveillance and censorship, ...). It doesn't matter what they do, as long as they place power in government's hands and make people more dependent. Stupid laws, which fight laws of economics or physics, are in fact preferable - they make it damn sure that no one else will even accidentally benefit from them.

Over time, the restrictions can become pretty severe (it's a long way down) but, as strange as it may seem, few people will notice that. Most will simply take them as a fact of life and will even argue for more of it.